Is It Trump or the Media Causing the 'Unhappiness' of Americans?

I was at the store yesterday and saw an article about how Americans are more optimistic about the economy but unhappy with the country in general:

WASHINGTON — Americans overwhelmingly disagree with President Trump on just about everything from his military threats to North Korea to his combative stance toward NFL players who won’t stand for the National Anthem.

But a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll also finds an unusual disconnect: Americans are increasingly optimistic about the nation’s economy.

“He’s just really intent on keeping the nation divided,” says William Reed, 52, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, who voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton last year and was among those polled. “No empathy; no compassion; just all about him and tweeting.”

Trump’s defenders counter that he has faced tough problems and unrelenting opposition from his political foes. “It’s not a good climate out there, and he’s navigating through it,” John Sakach, 80, the owner of a construction-supply business in suburban Chicago, said in a follow-up interview.

For the first time during Trump’s presidency, a majority of Americans, 53%, say in the USA TODAY poll that the economy is in a recovery. That typically would lift views that the nation is headed in the right direction. But this time, nearly two-thirds, or 64%, also say the country is on the wrong track, up 21 percentage points since the beginning of the year and the highest of his tenure.

Remember when polls showed the opposite–that people “approved” of Obama but were not optimistic about the economy? Why the disconnect? Because the media was a non-stop lovefest for Obama with any outliers demonized, and that psychological mindhit was enough to cause people to say they approved of Obama despite his policies not being good for the economy. Studies have shown the media to be up to 91% negative on Trump (it’s probably more) and frankly, my ears perk up when I hear anything positive from the media because of the rarity.

This negativity has a psychological impact on people; it makes them more depressed about the world around them:

According to some psychologists, exposure to negative and violent media may have serious and long-lasting psychological effects beyond simple feelings of pessimism or disapproval. The work of British psychologist Dr. Graham Davey, who specializes in the psychological effects of media violence, suggests that violent media exposure can exacerbate or contribute to the development of stress, anxiety, depression and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“Negative news can significantly change an individual’s mood — especially if there is a tendency in the news broadcasts to emphasize suffering and also the emotional components of the story,” Davey told The Huffington Post. “In particular… negative news can affect your own personal worries. Viewing negative news means that you’re likely to see your own personal worries as more threatening and severe, and when you do start worrying about them, you’re more likely to find your worry difficult to control and more distressing than it would normally be.”

I would love to see an experiment where the media turned things around and gave Trump the type of positive coverage they gave Obama. I bet the mood of the country would shift in a more positive way with no antidepressants needed. But we all know that will never happen. The media will keep things stirred up as long as a Republican is anywhere within spitting distance of the White House, or anywhere else for that matter. Too bad — because they are the cause of a lot of misery in this country, despite their insistence that it all rests with Trump and his administration.